S/V Hoku Pa'a Photos - Kiritimati, December 2005

...click on the small photos for larger versions...

Pacific Ocean, when the wind is 5 knots and there is little swell.	Barb's shooting a sun sight with our plastic sextant, which we do about once/week to stay in practice. We've also a borrowed brass sextant that toured the South Pacific 30 years ago.	Six hours later the sun is setting.
Halfway to Kiritimati is worth celebrating with brownies!	Looking for amusement one night, Barb discovered moon doodles - one of many fun things to do with a digital camera.	Just before arriving, one of our four winch handles jumped ship. We made ten passes in the area, attempting to locate the floating handle, to no avail.
Kiritimati Island was occupied by the British military back in the 1950s. Brimming with originality, they named places such as London, Paris, Canada, and Poland.	Some of the crew look different after a few weeks at sea.	Chuck Corbett on Fanning Island Trader has been in Kiribati for over 20 years. An avid surfer, he prefers hanging out at Tabuaeran (Fanning) Island.
To get ashore, we tie our dinghy to this long wharf. When the swell gets up one needs to carefully time stepping onto the metal ladder.	It rains very little on Kiritimati yet some flowers manage to grow in the shade of the harbourmaster's building.	Looking at Kiritimati's main town, London. There used to be so many birds here that flocks were often mistaken for the island itself, but the numbers now are much diminished.
London has a Wildlife Conservation office, partly funded by Canada. The staffs' knowledge seemed limited. We then heard the conservation officials are the worst offenders for poaching eggs.	We drove out to Kiritimati's south point: a 2-hour ride over potholey roads in the back of a pickup. Dominick strums tunes for the Corbett family during our picnic.	Barb's walking around some ruins from 28 Oct 1956, holding Aaba.
The road to Paris led through Poland, where there is still some copra-drying industry.	Fishing off the boat at night, one can catch golden trevally, snappers, and bonefish.	Hermy, one of many beach squatters.
We fetch water ashore in jerry cans: wellwater for washing and precious rainwater for drinking. Notice the looong pier. The loan of Chuck's bike made the return trip easier until it was 'borrowed', flat tire and all.	Snorkelling the reef closer to shore, we spotted a few interesting fish including this Porcupine fish.	Flounders are left-eyed; soles are right-eyed. It's neat to watch the common flounders change colour as they move from the sand over to coral.
We also went for a couple of SCUBA dives. Amazingly, we saw fish!	This Napoleonfish (aka humphead wrasse) was 5 feet long and they can grow to 7.5 feet. The males have a prominent bump on their foreheads.	The Coral Hind is very photogenic.
Banded Coral Shrimp are cleaners and will remove bits of dead skin and adhering algae from their 'customers'.	A Goldentail eel.	Though we prefer not to touch the sealife, this diver is grabbing an octopus which is filling the water with ink. The angry brown octopus later calmed down and turned creamy white.

S/V Hoku Pa'a 1000 DeCosta Pl. Victoria, BC Canada  V9A 6Y3

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